Newcastle Player Desperate – We’re Going To Try Our Hardest

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

2:40pm Thursday, April 7th, 2016

Commented 20 times

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Andros Townsend was a good buy for us in January and he wanted to come to Newcastle, but now it’s likely he will be playing second division football next year unless Rafa and out players can perform some kind of miracle – which si still just about possible if we could get five wins in the final seven games.

Both Townsend and Shelvey will stay with us next season since players at Newcastle don’t have any clauses in their contracts that their wages will be reduced if we are relegated.

Andros Townsend in action at Norwich Andros has talked about the misery at Newcastle right now:

“It’s difficult to say what I thought would happen when I signed.” “Obviously, when I joined, there were a lot more games left and we were a lot more positive.”

“But this is football, and this season, as you’ve seen, anything can happen.” “We’re in the position we’re in, and we need character now.” “We need the senior players to stand up and be counted, and drag us out of the situation that we’re in.”

“It’s our livelihood that’s at stake.” “You see the fans out there and see how passionate they are, and we’re desperate to give them something to cheer about.” “We gave them two goals at Norwich, but at the end they were just as dejected as we were.”

“I know footballers can be labelled as people who don’t care, but you only have to look at the faces in the dressing room to see how much it does mean to us.” “We’re going to try our hardest to get ourselves out of the situation that we’re in.”

The polls we have seen on whether Newcastle will survive after the Norwich defeat, show that about 85% of fans think we will be relegated.

Rafa could use that with the players and tell them if they have nothing to lose in the final seven games.

And rather being responsible for Newcastle going down, if they can get five wins they would be heroes on Tyneside – and we would have some momentum going into next season, which we haven’t had since 2012.

Townsend hasn’t shown up particularly well so far, but his assist last match and some of his runs (and an earlier goal, but I forget who it was against) do show that he has something more about him. I think this is particularly true when you compare him to who previously was in his role – Obertan. Townsend is quicker and has a better cross than Obertan. They may both get a bit carried away with what they’re doing at times, but I don’t think anyone can rate Obertan over Townsend.

We need more of these incremental improvements in the summer where we replace a squad player with a first team rotation player. It’s expensive to go this route (fees paid out in January back that up), but it will be necessary if we want to shore up the weaknesses throughout the squad and continue to build a bench that can add options throughout games.

Ibiza…… I am assuming that relegation will be enough of a failure to ensure we have a proper football person managing the club in the future. I have made this point several times but due to Ashley’s stubborn streak and unpredictability he will probably try and retain Charnley and Carr in some capacity.

Constantly whinging about Ashley at every opportunity offers no positive hope going forward so I repeat my question. Do you have any suggestions on how things might be improved , bearing in mind that Ashley isn’t selling at the moment.

WWSBRD @3 – I agree, he gets a lot of stick on this blog but like you I think he’s only just regaining his match fitness as he was injured and then did not play for quite a while when at Spurs. He always seems to be in the game, maybe not always going on fantastic runs, whereas a player like Gini just seems to completely disappear from a game

Betty…For now I am going to decline your invitation to suggest ways that things can be improved, as they are fairly obvious and beaten to death, but thank you anyway.

I appreciate you’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but for me, I’d rather look to deal with the bad situation. This club needs proper foundations, as it stands, I don’t believe they exist.

The last time we were relegated, the line wasn’t let’s do this properly, it was we can’t afford to keep this business running this way. Cut costs.

Kind of ties in with Ashleys recent comments about club finances.

I’m off, but please bear in mind, that I am not on the blog to provide “positive hope going forward”, but to comment on all things NUFC as I see it. I imagine you’ll continue to do the same.

Ibiza…….. Then we are back to having to wait and see what transpires whether we like it or not. People are hurting, angry and frustrated at this season’s debacle and need something positive to latch onto . The post you made a few days ago about happy clapping fans was very insensitive in my opinion and I refer you to Bobbybee’s response which I endorse. You didn’t bother to respond for some reason. You made it clear a few weeks ago that you were pretty much unperturbed with relegation so that tells me enough about your agenda.

Anything less than 3 points on Saturday and there will no more be straws to clutch at. It will be guaranteed relegation and the remaining 6 games will be going through the motion and playing for pride or whatever that means.

I for one already believe we are relegated. This lot of worse than horse sh1t

ilovetoon8788 @10 – I don’t agree – a draw wouldn’t be that bad. I think the key games we have to win are the home games (maybe not Man City) and the away game at Villa. If we could win 4 of those that would give us a chance of staying up so any points in the other games I would take as a bonus.

Nothing is going to change in our remaining games, you can garentee that, we’ve got the same player’s. The same player’s who lack quality and can’t defend, same players who struggle to score. We’ve struggled all season, Rafa is just one man who arrived to late and with no reinforcements on the pitch.

I think dropping Gini might be a wise move for the Southampton game, he is normally poor away from home and has been poor at home of late as well. Starting somone who could offer more protection to the back four alongside Shelvey, Saivet/Tiote and De Jong ahead of them to dictate the play could work well. With Townsend and Sissoko’attempting ‘ to cross to Mitro.

If only townsend played as well as he talked. Shelvey and townsend for 24 mill was ludicrous they’re not worth 12 mill between them. Shelvey has been poor since his first game and townsend just hasn’t got going yet. When your in the sticky stuff you need players who are fit, up for the cause and prepared to give it all on the pitch. Mitrovic aside I’m struggling to name anyone else who is fired up and ready to crawl off the pitch. As for gini, drop him for de Jong. De Jong is a leader, calm and does the easy thing. No pace but I think he can influence the players better too. Colo and dummet back in the team as I think they’re the best of a bad bunch. Dummet although not the best is a left back and colo on his day is our best centre half which says it all really. I expect a drubbing on Saturday as they have what we struggle with, height and pace. The will we won’t we go down debacle will drag on another week as I think palace will turn norwich over and sunderland nick a point. Mclaren has relegated us and is not here to take the credit with Charnley and carr but soaking up rays on his jollies with a swollen bank account for his troubles. As far as I’m concerned we are down and should play the lads who will likely be here next season in preparation for next season.

This is the result of MA selling players as soon as they turn a profit. Sure you make money but in the long run you turn your team into a gladiator stable and not a team. As we see now there aren’t many senior valuable players and the team is hard pressed for leaders. Yeah we have some players that seem to give it their all but I do t think the overall environment is one were players are made to feel loyal to the club. Rafa is trying to fix this but with the short amount he was given is all but impossible. Inaction is the worst possible kind of action one can take and the board did that for far too long and we are seeing the result. I still believe because I am loyal to the club but things have got to Change in attitude or personnel at the top or things will change below, the club belongs to us. Give me back my legions!

Goalscorers

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

After having various cat scans and a full bone scan recently, I met with the medical oncologist yesterday for a review of my condition.

The cancer in the bones has stabilized and has not spread further, and my PSA count has decreased significantly to being less than 0.1.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the disease is not spreading.

Hopefully, the hormone treatment will keep working for a while yet and then we will switch to some other treatments that have been developed over the last few years.

It is as it is - I accept it - and will do the very best I can under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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